Over 400,000 computers were infected by the duo Romanian cybercriminals who have been guilty of using malware to mint cryptocurrency.

The Department of Justice on
April 11, 2019, published, ‘Two Romanian
Cybercriminals Convicted of All 21 Counts’.

“The duo was convicted after a
12-day trial of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to traffic in
counterfeit service marks, aggravated identity theft, conspiracy to commit
money laundering and 12 counts each of wire fraud.”

The sentencing has been scheduled
to August 14, 2019.

The duo reportedly began their
operations in the year 2007, when they began sending malicious e-mail messages. These e-mail messages claimed that the emails
are being sent from the IRS, Norton Antivirus, and Traditional Western
Union. These e-mails were sent with a
file attachment, and anyone who clicks on the attachment will be infected with
the malware on their computer. The
malware would automatically download e-mail messages, which will in the
meantime block the sensitive information like the account password and the
credit card information.

Majority of the cryptocurrency
accounts belongs to US residents, and the malware method has as well been used
to mine cryptocurrencies.

While the developers and
researchers are busy building secure blockchain platforms and other kinds of
custodian solutions, the scammers and hackers are coming up with new ideas to
fraud people and mine the cryptocurrency.
Such instances were at their peak when the price of Bitcoin was nearing
$20,000.

Meanwhile, the World Bank and the
International Monetary Fund rolled out a Learning Coin, which is a
quasi-cryptocurrency.

When talking about the purpose of
the learning coin, the IMF stated: “The
development of crypto-assets and distributed ledger technology is evolving
rapidly, as is the amount of information (both neutral and vested) surrounding
it. This is forcing central banks, regulators and financial institutions to
recognize a growing knowledge gap between the legislators, policymakers,
economists and the technology.

It is very interesting and
worthwhile to see that the IMF has been particularly bullish about its
perceptions around the cryptocurrency.
The IMF has as well rolled a twitter poll, requesting the users to
provide their opinion about alternative payment systems. This was to be applied over the next five
years. From among the other
alternatives, it was seen that cryptocurrency scored higher than the other
three options proposed by the IMF.

The poll called on Twitter read
like: “We would like to hear from you.
How do you think you will be paying for lunch in 5 years.”

About The Author

Steven is an explorer by heart – both in the physical and the digital realm. A traveler, Steven continues to visit new places throughout the year in the physical world, while in the digital realm has been instrumental in a number of Kickstarter projects. Technology attracts Steven and through his business acumen has gained financial profits as well as fame in his business niche.